


The Enemy (Anyone In Between)

by Tricochet



Series: FlashVibe Week 2018 [5]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: FlashVibe Week, FlashVibe Week 2018, M/M, Memory Loss, Reverse Powers AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-11
Updated: 2018-08-11
Packaged: 2019-06-25 21:48:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15649584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tricochet/pseuds/Tricochet
Summary: When Vibe knocks the Flash out during a fight, the Flash forgets all about his life as a villain and decides to be a hero.





	The Enemy (Anyone In Between)

**Author's Note:**

> Barry is Vibe here and Cisco is a villain!Flash! This is inspired by a prompt I found here: http://milkteaghost.tumblr.com/post/127932076830/imagine-a-villain-getting-injured-and-losing-their

Barry focuses, viewing where his enemy will go next. There’s no way he can outrun the Flash, but he doesn’t have to. 

He jumps back, and the portal takes him across the room and near the ceiling. The Flash looks around. 

Barry raises his hand. The Flash flies back before he can react, slamming into a wall. His head tilts backwards, and Barry swears. He drops next to the man. 

The Flash is unconscious. His head is tilted back at an angle that shouldn’t be possible. 

“Frost!” he says into his hero phone. “Flash is down, but I think he’s hurt. I need to make sure he’s okay.”

“Vibe, he’s a villain. He’ll be fine. You’ve been trying to stop him forever.”

“Yeah, but I never wanted him dead!”

Caitlin sighs. “Fine. Bring him here.”

Barry lifts the Flash and meets Caitlin at his apartment. He pulls the Flash suit off and stares. He’d seen the guy pantless, yeah, but the Flash had always kept his cowl on. Barry has never seen his hair before. 

Vibe and the Flash have always had a more complicated than a hero and a villain. The Flash had never killed anyone, which Barry could respect. He just robbed the occasional mansion and beat up some politicians. When there was an actual disaster, the Flash would even help him save people. He’d never been caught on camera doing anything wrong, so the media only knew him as a hero. And every time they met, the Flash would not stop passing suggestive remarks. 

When a building by Barry’s day job collapsed, the Flash was there in thirty seconds. He’d lifted Barry away from a gap in the floor and helped carry a litter of kittens out. They’d hooked up once or twice afterward, and Barry gained a new appreciation of the Flash's powers.

“He probably suffered brain damage,” Caitlin says. “I think he has accelerated healing, so he should be fine, but there’s no telling how his powers will react.”

The Flash is already stirring. 

“Hey,” Barry says. 

“Who-who are you?” the Flash asks.

Barry ignores the question. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m- huh. I don’t know. A little confused.”

“Do you know who the current president is?” Caitlin asks. She shines a light in his eyes.

“Yeah. Wish I didn’t, though. It’s 2018. My name is Cisco Ramon. I know that much, at least.”

Barry stares. There’s no way the Flash he knew would willingly give his identity away like that.

“Okay. What’s the last thing you remember?” Caitlin asks him gently. 

“Uh, I was watching Star Trek this morning,” Cisco says. “My ex-boyfriend texted me and I blocked him. Am I in the hospital? Are you doctors?”

“Yeah, I’m a doctor,” Caitlin says. She looks over at Barry. Barry frowns. Is the Flash just pretending to have forgotten his life of evildoing? 

Cisco is looking around. He’s pretty obviously checking out Barry’s chest. Barry looks up the name the Flash had said. 

He finds a social media page with pictures that have to be the man in front of him. Some of them have another man. Barry wonders if that’s the ex.

“Okay, Cisco. I’m Barry. She’s Caitlin. I brought you here,” Barry says. 

“Thanks. What exactly happened?”

“You had an accident. I think you fell into a wall.”

“Ouch,” Cisco winces. “Yeah, that sounds like me.”

“Uh, is there anyone we should contact? Parents? Next of kin?” Caitlin is asking. 

Cisco visibly winces when Caitlin mentions his parents. “Uh, I’m gonna call my coworker and tell him I won’t be there tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Barry says. He wonders if he’s talking about a coworker at his regular job or his villain job. Cisco should be feeling fine by tomorrow with his regenerative powers, but maybe he doesn’t know that.

Caitlin keeps asking him questions as soon as Cisco puts the phone down.

“Have you ever gone by anything other than Cisco?”

“Francisco, I guess. That’s my real name.”

“Where do you work?”

“STAR labs. I’m an engineer.”

Barry subtly checks his database. Everything seems to be true.

“Do you remember what you were doing two nights ago?” Barry asks, remembering how he had blocked the Flash from breaking into a department store that night. Then they'd made out in a back alley.

Cisco squints. “Not really. I think I was asleep.” 

“Okay. I think you mostly need to rest,” Caitlin says. She pulls Barry out of the room.

“What do we do?” she asks. “Does he really not remember anything?”

“Either that, or he’s a really good liar. His name is correct. So’s his place of work. Either way, now we know his identity. I think we can let him go. He won’t try anything now that we know who he is.”

 

 

 

Cisco sits up after a nap. His head doesn’t hurt at all. He was expecting at least a headache. He finds something to tinker with.

He’s fixing an old wind-up toy he found at a garage sale when the side of his hand hits a wrench and knocks it off the table. Cisco sees it fall in slow motion. He bends down and grabs it before it hits the ground. 

He stares at his hand and lets it go again. It seems to slow down. He reaches out and grabs it like it’s stationary, hovering in the air. 

He pushes his door open and runs back to the home where he’d woke up before his door shuts. When he runs, everything seems to speed up. 

“Barry,” he yells. Something weird’s up with Barry and Caitlin.

“What is it?” Barry says. He opens the door. “Dude, are you okay? What’s with the wrench?”

“Oh, sorry,” Cisco says. He sets the wrench on the ground. “Uh, some weird shit’s been happening since I woke up. Like, I feel like everything is slowing down. I knocked a wrench off the counter, and it seemed like it was floating in the air. Then I ran here and it felt like it was instant.”

Barry looks distinctly uncomfortable. “Yeah. You have superspeed powers.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I thought you remembered!” 

“So, should I go back to being a hero?” Cisco asks. He wonders how many people he’s saved so far.

“Uh, yeah,” Barry says slowly. “You might want to take it easy after your injury, though. Even though I’m pretty sure you have accelerated healing powers-”

“What? I do? Dude, that’s awesome!” 

“Yeah. I think so. I mean, you never discussed your powers with me, but I kind of figured. You were always super private.”

“Oh,” Cisco says. “Do I have, like, a cool suit?”

“Yeah. I took it off after you got hurt. Sorry about that.”

“That’s alright,” Cisco says. “Do you have powers too?”

Barry nods. He extends his hand and shows Cisco how he can push things with his powers. 

Cisco frowns. His memory flashes, and he remembers those same powers lifting him up and slamming him against the wall. He realizes how exactly he was knocked out. 

He remembers how Vibe had been fighting him for literal years, and that’s not the only thing he remembers.

“You okay?” Barry asks.

“Uh, yeah. I’m good,” Cisco says. He needs some time to plan what to do. Now that Barry knows his identity and Cisco knows Barry’s, they’d be at an impasse as hero and villain. Cisco has lots of his memory back, but he can’t remember why he became a villain in the first place. He might as well hold on to his assets. He can always turn back to vilainry later. 

 

 

 

Barry watches Cisco running laps around the room. He can’t even really see Cisco between all the lightning streaks. 

“Man, I can’t get over how cool this is!” Cisco says. 

Barry nods. “Yeah, you look like you’re having a good time.”

“I was looking at some news articles from before. It looks like we were pretty close.”

“Yeah, we saved each other a lot. You showed up whenever I was in trouble.”

“You’re welcome,” Cisco says. He pauses. “Do you think I’ll be ready to go back into the field soon?”

Barry’s been dreading Cisco asking about going back, just because he doesn’t want to risk the alliance he and Cisco have formed. When they were enemies, Barry had never had a chance to get to know the Cisco beyond the Flash. Sure, they’d hooked up, but Barry had never gotten to talk about sci-fi with him or eat candy together. 

“I mean, you seem to remember pretty much everything except your adventures as the Flash, so I’d say you’ll be okay.”

“Alright!” Cisco cheers. “When can I start?”

“As soon as there’s some kind of emergency. Let me check the scanner.”

Barry bends over his computer. Cisco looks away.

“Uh, do you want to help out with a car chase?”

“Sure,” Cisco says. “Just tell me where to go.”

Barry rattles off directions in Cisco’s earpiece, and Cisco runs. He catches up first with the police, then with the pursued. 

 

 

 

The girl is driving twenty over the speed limit. Cisco looks in the back of her car. Her whole trunk is full of gold bars. Cisco matches the speed of the car and pulls her from the door. He sets her down and catches up with the car in less than a second. He slides into the driver’s seat and slows the vehicle down. 

He parks it and waits for the police, one arm on the driver’s shoulder so she doesn’t make a break for it. The cops take the gold bars back and arrest the woman. 

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Zoom asks from behind him. Cisco squeaks and jumps away. 

“I’m sorry. I don’t know who you are,” Cisco lies, staring his former boss right in the face. 

“I know you’re lying,” Zoom says. His voice vibrates. “You remember everything. You should have known not to cross me. I’ll need it back in three days.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Cisco says. “Please!”

Zoom holds his hand in front of Cisco’s chest. It starts to speed up. Cisco turns and runs. 

He can't risk his life by defying Zoom, but he wants to keep his tentative alliance with Barry. Cisco wonders what to do.

 

 

Barry smiles at Cisco. 

“I didn’t get a chance to tell you, but you did a really great job stopping that derailment yesterday.”

“Thanks,” Cisco says, but he doesn’t smile back. Barry wonders what’s been up with him for the past few days. “Listen, today, something might be happening…”

Barry gets hit by a vibe. He almost falls backwards, but he feels Cisco’s hand on his back holding him up. He can still see the vibe, the man in the suit threatening Cisco in a disguised voice. 

“One more day, Flash,” the man says. 

“Please, I don’t want to work for you,” the projection of Cisco says.

The masked man’s hand starts vibrating. He angles it at Cisco’s chest. 

“Barry!” Cisco is yelling. Barry sits up from the ground. 

“Cisco, we gotta leave. Someone’s after you. I should tell you that I haven’t been totally honest with you. Before, you weren’t a hero. You were-”

“A supervillain, I know. I remember everything. I just liked being a hero. With you. But now the guy who was my villain boss is really pissed. It’s okay. Just let me handle him.”

Barry gets hit with another vibe. He sees the man in the mask lunge for Cisco.

Barry grabs Cisco and vibes him out of the way. Cisco uses his speed to launch a thunderbolt at his boss.

Barry slams the man back with his powers and holds him in the air. Cisco builds up speed by running in tight circles and slams with his whole body. 

“Zoom, I told you I don’t work for you. Go!” Cisco yells. 

“You can’t stop me, Flash,” the speedster growls, but he phases away from Cisco and runs. 

“He’ll be back,” Cisco says. “But he’s gone for now.”

“So… you remember?”

“Yeah. I remembered everything after, like, a day. I just thought it’d be nice to be a hero for once, and you’ve been so nice to me. I know that before, we were kind of complicated, but it’s nice to not have you chasing me.”

Barry looks at the ground and scratches his neck. “So… I guess you remember the nature of the complications…”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Where we… you know?”

“Yeah.”

“Would you want to maybe stay a hero with me instead of going back to being a villain? It wouldn’t work as well anymore to be on opposite sides, since we both know each other’s identity.”

“You’ve been nicer to me than any villain ever has,” Cisco tells him. “Hell, you’ve been nicer to me than my family. I might as well join you. Be the hero the news already thinks I am.”

“You know, my sister always writes news articles about Vibe and the Flash. She thinks the Flash is the best hero ever, even though she knows I’m Vibe and I told her you were evil.”

“Tell her she was right.”


End file.
